Expectations and Hope, two words we often come across almost daily, which seem similar, but are poles apart. You listen to people around you, they have expectations. You happen to attend a funeral (which I hope isn’t daily; unless you are a janitor at the cemetery or something), you hear the speaker speaking about the blessed hope.
How do these two terms differ? Or what makes them differ. First let’s see how they are similar. They both can merely mean the same if you look at them with a common worldview. Simply put, an apprehension, or presumption, on a positive note. They are known to boost morale, and keep spirits high.
Where do they differ? They differ at where, you place Christ in your life. Indeed, we often don’t realize how things can mean and appear completely different the moment we put Christ into perspective.
Expectations are from people, from things. Expectations don’t always make us happy. The tide of expectations is always fluctuating. You don’t ‘expect’ your friends to hurt you. You ‘expect’ your car to start, the moment you turn on the ignition. You ‘expect’ to wake up next morning to carry on with your schedule. (In my case, you ‘expect’ to wake up to the alarm, but you don’t so it’s disappointing again.) Expecting too much sets us up for disappointment. We presume a set of things to occur to our standard and then get disappointed as these expectations get sidelined by life.
What’s different about Hope? Christ is different about Hope. Without Christ, hope can be nothing other than a synonym for expectation. The moment you put Christ into perspective, your expectation changes into hope, and your ‘set standards’ sweep down into HIS will for you. This may not be what you wanted, but will certainly be what you needed. God knows what’s best for you. So the next time you get through something you put into God’s hands, look back and you’ll see how beautifully, he wrote that chapter in your life.
This hope you’ll see is much better, as it doesn’t disappoint, and grants you what you need and that too, in plenty. Trust me, you won’t run out of HIS provision for you.
I happened to study in the same school my mom taught in. Believe me when I say so, it’s NOT a cool thing. Like it has its perks, you get to hang out with the seniors, get favoured in the clinic if there’s a line or something, get favoured if you’re late with your homework etc. But it’s not always on the ‘cooler’ side. Every teacher has a direct access to your parent, and there could be a PTM any day. School was never easy for me. Every new day brought more trouble, more naughtiness, more complaints and of course more ‘expectations’.
There came a time when these expectations overtook me, and I expected things from myself. This was the start of a low phase. Thankfully enough, I was born in a Christian home, and would be fed every week with the much needed word. Although it took me kind of longer than school life to fight my battles, I wasn’t far from the track. Not saying I didn’t go astray. Not saying I didn’t mess up. We’re humans. We mess up, and we expect. Both of which can be very disappointing. But, like I said; putting Christ into perspective, really helped me transform my expectations into hopes. These hopes eased the burden.
Jesus said, come to me; ask ye heavy and laden, and I'll give you rest. This was his way of working in me. I never saw it coming this route. He works in ways we cannot see. He'll turn your expectations into hopes, enroute for a miracle release.
So let’s try and cling on to Hope, centring Christ for it’s difficult to deal with the world otherwise.
Just as the song goes…
“My hope is built, on nothing else..
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness….”